


Begin Again

by Dominique_Icefall



Series: Time Travel Fics [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Childhood Friends, Conspiracy, Conspiracy Theories, Government Conspiracy, Kidnapping, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-14 02:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17500289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dominique_Icefall/pseuds/Dominique_Icefall





	1. Chapter 1

The first thing Tenten did when she woke up from the Nightmare was run towards the orphanage. She ignored the feelings of her body being too small, her limbs too weak, her steps too light. She pushed through the pain in her chest and had to foucs on her breathing. Neji was at the Hyuga clan compound, which she knew was highly protected and really hard to get into without an invitation. The only teammate-friend-brother she could get too was Lee, so she ran.

 

The  Nightmare that was the future was broken, bits and peices she didn’t understand. Memories, feelings, knowledge. Things she had done once but hasn’t done yet that she might do one day. She felt that the burning need to see her team-friends-brothers would drive her mad.

 

“Tenten?” Lee whispered as she stepped into the yard of the orphanage.

“Good Morning Lee,” Tenten said. “I had a nightmare,”

“I had a nightmare too,” Lee said.

 

For a set of code words, they were surprisingly true. The future was a nightmare, and they would change it. That was why they’d sent themselves back in the first place after all.

 

Tenten had forgotten that Lee was once shorter than her. She also forgot Lee was once had average strength and horrible balance. Running into his arms like she used to, she wasn’t expecting the height difference. She wasn’t expecting the fall, as Lee stumbled under her weight. Lee’s wide eyes and the horror that sank over his features sent Tenten into a fit of giggles. He clearly wasn’t expecting it either.

 

“We’ll have to start training,” Tenten said. “But carefully. Our bodies are so fragile right now, and I bruised so easily when I was this age,”

“Yosh! Let’s run five laps around the academy,” Lee said.

“Not more?”

“...we have Kyoko-sensei...she’s scary,”

Tenten dropped her head on his shoulder and giggled again. Most of their academy class was scared of their teacher. The woman who believed in expelling students with zero potential as shinobi intimidated a lot of people. Of course, they’d been in her class for almost a year now. Hopefully, the ‘sudden’ friendship between her, Lee, and Neji wouldn’t be concerning.

 

A frantic pink haired girl ran passed. Tenten watched as Sakura, so small and adorable, ran into the orphanage building.

 

“Is Naruto here?” Tenten asked.

“I’m not sure,” Lee said. “The Matron might have...kicked him out last night, there was a lot of yelling involved on her part,”

“I see,”

 

Sakura slammed the door shut behind her as she marched out of the orphanage. She glanced at them, and while Lee went pink, Tenten refused to be embarrassed.

 

“Nightmares,” Tenten said.

Lee nodded, not looking at the pink haired girl.

“Me too,” Sakura said. “I’m looking for my boys, any idea where they are?”

“No clue,” Tenten said.

“Wonderful,”

* * *

 

Sakura chewed on her lip as she left the orphanage. Of course, the only one of her boys she could get too was impossible to find. He wasn’t at the orphanage...maybe he was at that apartment of his? Would the Third really send a five-year-old to the red-light district?

 

The pink haired girl ran towards the apartment her best friend had lived at in the future. If he really was living near the red light district, then she’d just have to fix that. Her parents were civilians, and as such were idiotic about the Fox, but...Sasuke had room, right? Well...maybe not. Right now the Uchiha were all alive, so maybe he wouldn’t be able to help.

 

“Hey, Pinkie, that’s no place for a little girl,” Someone said.

“Are you trying to stop me?” she asked.

“Yes. You shouldn’t be heading over there,”

“Too bad, that’s where I’m going”

 

The man put his hand on her shoulder. Sakura shot the man a glare.

 

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Looking for my boys,” she said. “Now let go,”

“I’m going to take you back to your parents,”

“How about no?”

 

Sakura grabbed one of the man's fingers and lifted the digit off her shoulder. The man’s hand released her and she turned around. She bent the finger backward until the man sank to his knees.

 

“I don’t know who you are,” Sakura said. “And I don’t care. No one is going to stop me from finding my boys, got that?”

 

“Ye-yes,” the man said. Sakura hummed but released the man’s hand. She had more important things to be doing right now.

 

She found Naruto’s apartment. Walking up the stairs, she wondered what she could do to help her boys. Naruto needed food and clothes, and maybe...ugh. She could help him clean. If she had too.

 

She knocked on the door to Naruto’s apartment.

 

“Just a minute!” Naruto said. Sakura bounced on the soles of her feet while she waited. There was a crash from inside the apartment. Two voices talking in hushed tones. Was Sasuke here too?

 

Naruto opened the door. Sakura pushed her way inside with a grin.

 

“I had a bad dream,” she said. “Might even call it a nightmare,”

“I had one of those,” Naruto said, leading her to his bedroom. “So did Teme,”

 

Sasuke, as a small, adorable, five-year-old, was sitting on Naruto’s bed with tears streaming down his face and a glare. He’d clearly dreamt something he felt he needed to apologize for. There was a lot of mistakes in their future, but Sakura already knew how she felt about it now.

 

“I forgive you,” Sakura said.

 

Sasuke’s glare wavered before he burst into tears again. She sat on the bed next to the Uchiha. Opening her arms as an offer of comfort, she smiled. He wrapped his arms around her, and she held him. She began combing her fingers through his hair with a sigh.

 

“Childhood is going to be difficult,” Sakura said. “There’s so much we’re going to want to do but as kids...most of it is beyond us,”

  


Naruto dropped onto the bed next to them and threw his arm over his eyes.

 

“We’ll figure it out,” Naruto said. “...we’re five years old,”

“Yeah,” Sakura said. “Almost six though, and Tenten, Lee, and Neji should be about seven,”

“...I wanna try to save my clan…” Sasuke said.

“We don’t know if they’re planning a coup yet or not,”

“We’ll find a way, Believe it!”

* * *

 

Hinata woke up from her Nightmare with a gasp. Fear and confusion fogged her thoughts until she recognized her childhood bedroom. She got dressed. What was she going to do? Should she try to find Shino and Kiba? Or should she...talk to her Father? What would she even say?

 

Opening her bedroom door, she squeaked. Neji-niisan was sitting right outside her bedroom door.

 

“Neji-niisan?” Hinata asked. “Wha-what are yo-you do-doing?”

“Nightmares,” Neji said, standing up he turned around to face her.

“Me too,” she said softly.

 

Breakfast was a quiet affair, but it was nice.

 

“I’ll walk with you to the Aubrame compound,” Neji said.

“Thank you,” Hinata whispered.

 

Shino was waiting for them outside when they got to the compound.

 

“I knew you would visit me first,” Shino said. “Why? Because Kiba sleeps like a dog,”

 

Hinata giggled, ducking her head into her hands to muffle the sound. Shino smiled behind his coat. Hinata should laugh more, no matter what Nightmares the future brings, he’d make sure his friends were happy.

 

“I’m going to find my teammates,” Neji said. “...watch out for my civilian classmates…”

“You do not have to worry,” Shino said. “Why? Because I will look out for her,”

* * *

 

 

Finding his team was easy, Neji thought, considering Lee lived at the orphanage until they became genin. He found Lee and Tenten outside the orphanage. Joining them under the tree he finally let himself relax.

 

“Nightmares?” Tenten asked.

 

Neji nodded.

 

“Join us for training my rival!” Lee cheered.

“We’re running laps around the academy tomorrow,” Tenten said.

“I’ll be there,”

 

He wouldn't be a pawn of Fate again. This time, he'd pave his own Destiny. 

* * *

 

Kiba woke up to find Hinata and Shino eating lunch with his sister. He wrapped his arms around the small girl and buried his face in her hair. He could feel her heart beating, he could smell her, alive and whole and young. Her soft hands held his. Standing behind her chair like this wasn’t really comfortable, but he didn’t really care.

 

“You okay Kiba?” Hinata asked.

“Nightmare,” he muttered.

“Us too,”

 

He almost lost her once, he wouldn’t make that mistake again.

* * *

 

Ino woke up with a scream. Shikamaru and Chouji were in the room next door, a sleepover while their parents were busy with shinobi work, but she panicked. They weren’t with her. They were gone, missing, what happened? Where were they? Did it work?

 

“You are Ino, you are five years old,” Shikamaru said. “We are in Konoha, we are safe,”

 

Ino blinked through the panic and took a shaky breath. She was relieved to see the two boys in her room. Shikamaru and Chouji...she forgot how cute they were at five years old.

 

“It was just a Nightmare,” Shikamaru said. “we had one too,”

“...so it worked?” Ino asked. “Naruto’s time jutsu thing?”

“Yeah,” Chouji said. “That future was nothing more than a Nightmare, we’ll do better this time,”

“Yes,” Ino said, still shaking from the memories. “We will,”

 

Nothing like that would ever happen again. Ino would make sure of it.


	2. Chapter 2

There was a lot Sasuke wanted to do before his next birthday. He wanted to save his clan, kill Danzo, capture or kill Orochimaru, stop the Akatsuki, help Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo, and most of all Sasuke really, really, wanted to save his brother. But wanting things to change and actually changing things were vastly different concepts. He could want something until his Sharingan turned blue, but nothing would happen until he actually managed to do something.

 

Sitting around Naruto’s desk at the academy while the others brought up various issues they wanted dealt with, he was glad he wasn’t the only one unable to figure out how to change anything.

 

“We’ll have to start small,” Naruto said, sketching out a plan on a scroll. “Sasuke, Hinata, Chouji, Shino, search your clans' records and find out if any of your relatives are going missing. I was kicked out of the Orphanage, so I’m going to ask you, Lee, to find out if there are any missing orphans, and Sakura can poke around the civilian areas. If we can prove citizens are going missing, then we can bring it to Gramps,”

 

Sasuke agreed, as did the others addressed, and leaned back in his chair. Finding proof...that was going to be difficult. He’d forgotten how large his clan was before he’d seen them all alive again. He’s going to have to dig around his Father’s offices for a lead. How was he going to explain why he was searching for a missing relative he didn’t know? Or explain how he knew relatives were going missing if they were?

 

“We can’t do anything about the problems outside the village until our problems here are taken care off,” Naruto was saying. “Lunch is almost over,”

 

Sasuke ignored the others as they migrated back to their desks, or in the case of Lee, Tenten, and Neji, back to their classroom. Sitting next to Naruto meant Sasuke got to watch the blond boy plan out the reconstruction of the village, which was nice. Being one of the first ones to know what Naruto’s planning means he’s less likely to be taken off guard by the ‘most unpredictable ninja’. The fact Naruto’s plans are mostly large scale traps and pranks were less useful. What Naruto really needed was information...sure they knew what was going to happen but that didn’t tell them what was going on now.

 

“During the Warring States Period, ninja were organized into small mercenary clans that knew nothing but battle. The two strongest of these clans were the Senju and the Uchiha, who had warred against each other for their entire histories. Eventually, intending to end the countless bloodshed, Hashirama Senju used his position as leader of his clan to create a truce with the Uchiha clan. The Senju, the Uchiha, and their affiliated clans formed the first shinobi village: Konohagakure,” Iruka-sensei lectured. “Who can tell me something about the first Hokage?”

 

Sakura hesitated in raising her hand, drawing everyone’s attention to her as she stood up instead.

 

“Go ahead Haruno-san,” Iruka-sensei said.

 

“Senju Hashirama used his Wood Release abilities to produce much of our village's infrastructure. This ability and his ideals were two of the reasons he was chosen to become the village's leader: the Hokage. Uchiha Madara, however, feared that the Senju would oppress his clan and attempted to gather support to overthrow Hashirama. No Uchiha would help, forcing him to take on Hashirama by himself. Madara was ultimately defeated at what we now call the Valley of the End and he is believed to have died. As a result of the battle, Konoha came into possession of the Nine-Tails demon fox. To contain its enormous power, the village began its trend of sealing the beast within the Uzumaki, a clan that the Senju and thus the rest of Konoha had close ties with.”

 

There was a moment of awkward silence as Sakura sat back down. When the rest of the history lesson became a question and answer session, Sasuke smirked. Naruto had his plans to save the village, but it seems there were other plans at work here too.

 

“Is Naruto related to that Uzumaki Clan that Sakura mentioned?”

“She said ‘believed to be dead’ does that mean Madara is still around?”

“Is he going to attack Konoha again?”

“Is the Hokage really oppressing the Uchiha? Is that why their so angry all the time?”

“What is the Nine-tails demon fox? Are there others?”

“Sealed...does that mean the Fox is related to Chakra?”

“What’s chakra?”

 

Basically, if it wasn’t a village or clan secret their sensei could deflect, the class pestered him for answers. It was an amusing history lesson, to say the least.

* * *

 

Poking around in the Orphanage records, and comparing it to the public records of Konoha’s citizens, left Lee quite disappointed in Konoha’s current leadership.  For the past twenty years, ever since Sarutobi became the third Hokage, orphaned civilians have been disappearing. One moment their there, the next they’re gone.

 

“Suzuki Naomi, last seen April 6th, X50. She was six years old at the time, 115cm, 30kg, with brown eyes, black hair. She left the orphanage with the other students heading to the academy but vanished before she got there. No one’s seen or heard from her since,” Lee created a file for each missing orphan, his heart sinking with each addition he made to the pile.

 

Yasu Taiki, last seen March 19th, X36. Etsuko Katsuro, last seen June 10th, X43. Manami Gorou, last seen December 28th, X48.  Ryou Aya, Ami Kazue, Yuri Mari, Kiku Youta.

 

Each missing orphan disappeared between the ages of five and ten. Some were students at the academy, others were almost apprenticed to civilian trades. A few even vanished right from the orphanage! Lee gathered up the stack of files he’d made. In the past twenty years, ninety-four orphans have gone missing, from a shinobi village, from Konoha. If someone’s able to kidnap so many of Konoha’s citizens, then…

 

“I’m looking for Shikamaru Nara-kun,” Lee told the young woman at the door.

“Ah, alright,”

 

Shikamaru was playing shoji in the living room of the Nara compound. Lee set the stack of files next to him.

“That’s…”Shikamaru said, blinking at the stack of files. “Troublesome...you alright Lee?”

“I’m going for a run,” Lee said, anger boiling under his tense posture. “I’m...not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight,”

“Yeah...me either,”

* * *

 

Neji held his cousin as she cried. Fourteen Hyuga’s, all under the age of five, were unaccounted for. All were branch members, and when their parents tried to raise a fuss they were permanently silenced. To say Neji was furious would be an understatement, but Hinata needed comfort right now.

 

When Shino was led into the family room, Neji reluctantly let the other boy comfort Hinata. She buried her face into Shino’s shoulder and clenched his coat in her fists. Her shoulders shaking with her sobs as she tried to explain.

 

“I know,” Shino said. “My cousins are missing too,”

 

If Neji had to compliment the Aburame for anything, it would probably be the way he could calm Hinata down so easily. Neji gathered the files he helped Hinata make on the missing Hyugas. He hesitated at the door, unsure if he should leave Hinata alone right now.

 

Shino sat perfectly steady, as Hinata curled up on his lap. Her soft voice was barely a whisper as she spoke, but Shino listened to every word.

 

Neji left to take the files to Shikamaru. Hinata wasn’t alone, she had Shino.

* * *

 

Ino walked into Sakura’s house to find a storm of papers scattered all over the dining room. Tenten sat at the table with the pink haired girl, so Ino made her way over an available chair. Two chairs had stacks of files piled up on them near to tipping over.

 

“Is that...?” Ino asked watching as Sakura made another file.

“The record of missing civilians?” Tenten said. “It is, we’ve got nearly two hundred kids confirmed missing so far,”

“How far back does it go?” Ino asked.

“Twenty years,” Sakura bit out. “Exactly twenty years,”

“...but that’s...The third Hokage’s been in charge during that entire time,”

“We know,”

“I’ll help,” Ino said, grabbing a few records.

 

Ino wasn’t sure Konoha would survive the Third Hokage to pushing this under a rug. She’d rather help Naruto rebuild Uzushio than let this slide.


	3. Chapter 3

“But I don’t get it, Gramps,” Naruto said as he paced the Hokage’s office. “Konoha exists because of the Shinobi Clans of Konoha Treaty. It’s literally the foundation of Konoha’s entire existence. Without the treaty, the Shinobi Clans have no reason to stay here. Without the Shinobi Clans, there is no Shinobi village. Sure, there might be a few years where the Civilian portion of Konoha’s Shinobi forces manages but it wouldn’t last very long. When there’s no Shinobi village, then there’s no Hokage,”

 

“True,” Hiruzen said. “And I will look into this issue, but I’m very busy right now,”

 

“How can you be too busy to look after the village?”

 

“Paperwork,”

 

“Then make it so you have less paperwork,”

 

“And I suppose you know how to do that my boy?”

 

“Sure,” Naruto shrugged. “Start making D-rank missions teamwork assignments for academy students to be approved, signed off on, and reported on to their Sensei. Go through the rest of your paperwork by order of importance, and try delegating the less important things to someone else to report to you should something need your attention. You could have a civilian in charge of the civilian issues and that the Police force reported to for civilian matters. That civilian would then bring to your attention anything that needs your attention. Do you get all the hospital reports? Most of these could get sent to the Head Medic, all you really need to know is if someone’s dead or needs resignment. Let me see…”

 

Hiruzen leaned back as the young boy sorted through the stacks of paper on the old desk. Naruto made a lot of good points and had some really good ideas. Maybe…he’d actually consider a few of them. He wasn’t a young man anymore. Hiruzen really should pick another successor. Life would be so much easier if he was retired.

* * *

 

The academy was dull the first time around, going through it again really wasn’t something Kiba really wanted to do. Sure he might not remember Future Kiba’s entire academy days, but what he recalled was six years of boredom. As the investigation in the missing citizens was being handled, there wasn’t anything for him to do with his free time. He trained, he studied (sorta) and he pestered his sister. There really wasn’t anything for him to  _ do _ . 

 

Then, Naruto walked into the classroom with a bulletin board and a stack of papers. The blond set whatever it was up in the back of the classroom, Sasuke and Sakura helping him pin the papers to it with excited grins. 

 

“This is our board of mock missions,” Naruto said as the curious students gathered around him. “In a team of three, you can grab a mission from the board and take it to Iruka-sensei for approval. He’ll sign out your team from class to do the mission, then you’ll return to class to report on the mission to Iruka-sensei,”

 

Kiba wasn’t the first to grab a mission from the board, but he was the only one who made it to the board without getting hurt. He’d grabbed the Tora mission, which was a D-rank mission. Academy students doing D-ranks, that was something Naruto had done in the Nightmare Future before things went to shit. Of course, Naruto managed to convince the Third to change things up. 

 

Kiba made his way to his team, Hinata was trying to figure out which of her Clan Elders was a traitor, while Shino provided a soothing presence for the frustrated girl. Hopefully, the Tora Mission would get her mind off the horrible backstabbers. 

 

“So,” Kiba said, cheerfully interrupting whatever fretting Hinata was doing. “Anyone up for a tracking and retrieval mission?”

 

“A mission?” Hinata smiled. “Details?”

 

“Tora, a brown Noue Feline wearing a red bow has fled the Daimyo’s Castle. Reports indicate the target has been spotted within Konoha’s walls,” Kiba said. 

 

“Just like old times isn’t it?” Hinata got a wistful gleam in her eyes. “Let’s have some fun,”

 

Kiba was excited, and he wasn’t afraid to show it as he bounced up to Iruka’s desk with Hinata and Shino with a grin. His second go at the academy wouldn’t be so boring after all.

* * *

 

Chouji was having lunch with his Aunt Chiho when a vaguely familiar cat ran past the window. 

 

“Tora?” Chiho asked, leaning across the table. 

 

A second later Kiba ran passed with a horde of young civilian girls on his heels. Followed by Hinata, red-faced and snarling as she went, a look that promised painful revenge in her eyes.  Shino’s chill, casual walk as he passed the window a minute later was jarring in comparison. 

 

“...those were your classmates right?” Chiho asked. 

“Last I checked,”

“Any idea what they’re doing?”

“Training missions,”

“...I...see…”

“So, your Chunin Exam?”

“Ugh, don’t even get me started. Enko-sensei has us leaving tomorrow before second breakfast. I tried complaining to Choei-nii but he just laughed at me,”

“Sounds like Choei-ojisan,”

“But second breakfast,” Chiho whined. “...travel snacks don’t make a good breakfast,”

 

Chouji patted his youngest Aunt’s wrist. The fourteen-year-old just glared at him from the other side of the table.

* * *

 

Sakura was on her way to interview Miss Megumi, a relative of a missing civilian girl when Kiba ran down the nearby street. He henged into Naruto before moving to stand next to her. Sakura raised an eyebrow. Kiba-as-Naruto smiled and ran a hand through his hair. 

 

A group of civilian girls, around six years old, ran past screeching excitedly. Sakura blinked, a vague feeling of deja vu settling over her shoulders.

 

“Fangirls?” Sakura asked. 

 

Kiba winced, laughing in embarrassment.

 

“I may or may not have caught a girl when she fell out of a tree...and I may or may not have called the girl pretty so she wouldn’t start crying…” 

 

Sakura sighed. 

 

“You need to learn how to deal with girls,” Sakura said. “Let’s go,”

 

Kiba yipped as Sakura grabbed his wrist. He stumbled, following behind the pink haired girl as she dragged him off.

 

“Where are we going?”

“On a date!”

“ _ Date _ ?”

* * *

 

Sasuke was dragging Itachi to a dango stand when Hinata marched up to him. 

“Have you see a few banshees run through here?” she asked. 

 

“Banshee?”

 

“Shrieking, giggling, civilians with no sense,” Hinata said. “They scared off my target and stole my teammate,”

 

“Have you checked by their clan compound?”  Sasuke asked, remembering the time some of his fangirls had camped out by the gates to the Uchiha compound to ambush him with breakfast.  “You could ambush them when they try to ambush your teammate,”

 

“Good idea,” Hinata said.

 

Before Sasuke could continue to the dango shop with Itachi, Sakura and Kiba walked by  _ holding hands.  _

 

“Sorry Aniki,” Sasuke said, his eyes narrowed in the direction of the duo. “Change of plans,”

 

* * *

 

Tenten was having lunch with Lee and Neji when Sakura dragged Kiba into the restaurant. The dark haired girl watched the younger kids as they ordered some food. Kiba was blushing, Sakura was laughing...that wasn’t school or mission-related at all. Were the two on a date? They were just kids though! Memories of being young adults and teenagers aside, they were currently only children. Even their memories were vague dreams instead of actual memories. 

 

Sasuke slipped into the restaurant, hidden out of sight and glaring at Kiba. Tenten shared a glance with Sasuke’s older brother and had to stifle her laughter. And then Hinata marched into the restaurant, hidden on the other side of the room, to glare at Sakura. 

 

Tenten pulled out a scroll, biting her lip she began taking notes. Making assumptions and filling in a few gaps with things she knew from the future, she laughed. This was going to be better than Icha Icha, and there’d be no smut at all. Just pure romance and tragedy. 

 

“This is perfect,” Tenten said. “I’m going to be rich,”

 

Neji and Lee traded a confused look as the girl broke down into cheerful giggles.

 

"Should we be concerned?" Lee asked.

"...She's happy..."

"Then it should be fine," Lee eyed his female teammate with worry. "Right?"

"Right," Neji nodded.  "Training?"

"Yosh!"

 

Life was good, Lee smiled. Life was really good.


End file.
